Superheroes at the End of the World - A Review of The Annihilation Score

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Lately, superheroes are a thing. Every year Marvel comes out with a handful of new superhero movies, with DC currently playing catch-up. Aside from Marvel Studios’ Iron Man-Captain America-Thor triumvirate, one non-related studio is putting out yet another Spiderman reboot, while another studio is continuing the X-Men franchise. On DC’s part, they have Superman and Batman movies, with a crossover film coming out soon, but they will be releasing an Aquaman movie soon, and there are hints that there will be a Wonder Woman movie in the near future. It’s gotten to the point that some folks are actually building entire moviegoing schedules up to three years in advance based on planned release schedules from the studios themselves—clearly an attempt to build hype as early as possible.

Because of the popularity of these movies, it’s no surprise that superheroes (and other, similar entities) are starting to crop up in other media as well. The TV show Heroes, for example, is getting a reboot, while a new show titled Sense8 is steadily gaining popularity of its own. And then there are novels like Adam Christopher’s Empire State, which explicitly deals with superhero tropes and conventions and attempt to turn those conventions and tropes on their heads (Christopher’s novel isn’t a particularly good example, in my opinion, but it’s the one that stands out in my memory right now).

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